Happy Nintendo 3DS Day

The New 3DS console lineup was released today alongside Majora's Mask, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Ace Combat. So I thought I'd put together my Top 3 3DS games.

1. Super Smash Bros.

The perfect title to have on the go. There's just so much to unlock (characters, trophies, levels) the controls are excellent and local multiplayer is amazing (forget the online multiplayer though - plagued by lag).

2. Animal Crossing: New Leaf

In stark contrast to Super Smash Bros. we have Animal Crossing: New Leaf. A peaceful game where you play as the Mayor of your own town and you get to customise pretty much everything about it. It's not as demanding as previous entries to the series (thank goodness), but AC:NL is seriously addictive, you have been warned.

3. Kid Icarus: Uprising

A brilliantly dynamic shoot 'em up with stunning visuals and a heap of weapons to unlock. The best part though is the dialogue between the characters as it's wonderfully scripted and well voiced. Some found difficulty with KI: Uprising because of it's unusual control scheme; you hold the console with one hand and tap the screen with your stylus to shoot, I can imagine it's difficult for smaller hands but for a big kid like me I didn't have a problem. There's a bundle available with a stand which should make things more comfortable.

Day 98 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Animal Crossing Soundtrack

Just before Christmas Nintendo were flogging this Animal Crossing OST for an astonishing £2!!! I think this CD was once a Club Nintendo exclusive, making it even more surprising they were selling it for such a low price, they must have had tons left.

There's a whopping 39 tracks on here from Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City, a game I didn't spend too much time playing so every track here is pretty new to me.

Glancing through the booklet the tunes have been divided into categories. You have the Main Themes from Animal Crossing, Happy Room Academy, Gracie Grace etc, then KK Sliders most requested songs (apparently there was a vote to determine which tracks would be included), and 3 bonus tracks have also been thrown in.

At this low price I'm certainly not complaining. I've got the CD on now and it's sounds brilliant, I'm going to keep it on while I tidy up the mess left over from Christmas.

Day 30 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Animal Crossing New Leaf

This game should come with a government health warning, something along the lines of...

CAUTION: This game will consume your very mind and soul until you believe you live in a world inhabited by freakishly adorable animals that persist on coming to your house for absolutely no reason.

I was able to break free of my Animal Crossing addiction some time ago but I returned to my town in order to write this blog. If you ever spent a considerable time away from your town in previous Animal Crossing games you would usually return to find the place in ruins, half your neighbours will have moved out and you would have to suffer the emotional trauma of listening to whoever remained cry on about how much they missed you.

Thankfully in Animal Crossing: New Leaf because you're playing the role of Mayor you have your assistant, Isabelle, who takes over the running of the town while your away so it's less hassle when you return. I was also lucky enough to have set the 'Beautiful town' ordinance before I vanished, so the place wasn't besieged by weeds and rubbish, but that still doesn't mean I was able to escape my neighbours.

I had only lost one neighbour (Phoebe), but those who remained wouldn't let me forget that I had deserted them. I had apparently left the game for 7 months, some thought I was a ghost and others tried to make me promise never to leave them again (scary), but that was the least of my problems. Pecan the Squirrel asked me if I could unearth a time-capsule that she made me bury 7 months ago.

Pecan - "Noggin, remember that time capsule I asked you to bury for me. Could you dig it up? You do know where it is, right?"

Me- "Sure, I remember where it is!" (Oh, %&£#, where the hell did I bury it?!!)

I was always unsure whether I liked the Animal Crossing series for certain, because I can't understand the purpose of games that have no ending, and while previous games in the series always felt like they required a lot of dedication, New Leaf is much more relaxing and even allows you time to reflect on certain aspects of your own life.

For instance New Leaf is packed with items to collect, the game is a hoarder's dream, but it's impossible to obtain every item and be able to store it in your home. So eventually you just have to face reality and to prevent yourself from being surrounded by crap; you have to be ruthless with your possessions. At least that's true in my case, I really need to have a clear out.

Now that I find returning to Animal Crossing is much less hassle than I thought it would be, I think I'll play it for a while. I must admit I've missed buying fortune cookies to get rare items, going to see K.K. play a gig on Saturday nights or visit the nearby island to play a bunch of mini-games with my friends.

So do not fear dear citizens, Mayor Noggin has returned.

Day 25 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Nintendo Land

Spent a majority of the night playing this one so this blog is a little late.

This was the free game we chose from the Mario Kart 8 promotion, and if you haven't claimed yours yet what on earth on are you waiting for?! We chose Nintendo Land as we wanted to boost our library of offline multiplayer titles, and the Wii U has plenty, but we were heading over to my parents and thought this had a great selection of mini-games that everyone could enjoy.

You can tell the game has been purely designed to show off the capabilities of the Wii U, something that Nintendo Land does very well however, a lot of the time games like these are fun for five minutes then left to gather to dust. Nintendo have really pushed the boat out in the hope that Nintendo Land has the same level of re-playability as Wii Sports, and while I don't think they've succeeded to that extent, I'm certain this is a game that will always be considered whenever you're playing multiplayer with your friends and family.

I'm going to detail some of the mini-games that we played last night but in total there are 12 games, with 6 supporting simultaneous multiplayer, and the other 6 having alternate multiplayer.

Luigi's Ghost Mansion- A great little ghostbusting game that will have many players shrieking with terror, quite surprising when you consider how adorable this game is. One player controls a ghost via the Gamepad and has to hunt down the 'busters before they can fry him with their torches. The only clue that the 'busters have of a nearby spectre is the chilling rumble of their Wii Remotes, so better be quick with those torches or your ghost busting days are over.

Animal Crossing Sweet Days- There's trouble in the world of Animal Crossing and only the Gamepad controlled police officers can sort things out. Players have to work together to capture a set number of sweeties before the local constabulary can come and throw them in jail. The only problem is pigging out on all those sweets diminishes your ability to run, so consider your diet otherwise the fuzz will put you away.

Mario Chase- This was by far our most favourite game of the night as it's completely bonkers. The player with the Gamepad controls Mario and has to elude a group of Toads until the timer runs out. It's a simple hide 'n' seek affair but Nintendo have applied some great level design to make this one a big hit. There are areas where the Toads can gain higher ground so they can seek out Mario and guide their team to victory, but Mario can use power-ups to evade his mushroom shaped captors, so the Toads have to work together. And best of all when the game is over you get to see a little replay of how close the Toads came to snaring a little Italian plumber.